Hi to all,
Due to the fact that I have not received data for Friday’s market numbers, numbers may be off slightly from the actual that may occur. Here’s what I have for this week’s price changes:
*Heating and stove oil shows an increase of a half cent (5/10ths) a litre.
*Diesel fuel shows an increase of 9/10ths of a cent per litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an increase of 1.5 cents a litre.
Market highlights
US-China trade deal
The US and China are reported to be close to an agreement on tariffs, but you’d hardly think that was true according to oil’s performance the past few days.
Speculators are laying 50/50 odds of a signed agreement by the end of October that may (or may not) return trade between the two world economic powers back to something more normal.
Oil markets responded positively on Thursday moving higher as speculators thought an increase in oil demand would result, but it didn’t last very long.
Chewing into details, speculators found that there wasn’t much detail and that the four foundations of the trade war weren’t even touched. China also made no mention of the agreement and still wants to see December tariffs removed before they sign onto anything.
Iranian tanker attacked
Iran has claimed that one of its tankers was attacked by missiles on Friday that helped support oil prices as tensions continued to weigh on oil markets.
However, the attacks didn’t raise prices as much as feared, but still showed that Middle East targets abound and risk premiums remain on crude oil anywhere from the Middle East.
IEA makes a cut to forecasted oil growth demand
Just last month the US EIA made projections on lower demand and this past week seemed to be “seconded” by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as they moved downwards their forecast for any growth in demand by another 100,000 barrels a day from an initial projected growth of 1.1 million barrels a day.
No doubt that the lower forecast signals lower demand due to world economic conditions.
US inventories
The US Energy Information Administration released inventory data again Wednesday that showed another build in overall crude oil stocks.
Inventories of crude oil increased by 2.9 million barrels while gasoline stocks dropped 1.2 million barrels as refiner capacity was measured at 85.7 percent for the week as some refineries remained closed for winter maintenance.
Distillate inventories dropped by 3.9 million barrels as colder weather increased demand for heating product.
U.S domestic oil production was recorded at 12.6 million barrels last week, an increase of 200,000 barrels.
That’s it for this week!
Regards,
George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil
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